Time is a funny thing

“I WISH IT NEED NOT HAVE HAPPENED IN MY TIME,” SAID FRODO.

“SO DO I,” SAID GANDALF, “AND SO DO ALL WHO LIVE TO SEE SUCH TIMES. BUT THAT IS NOT FOR THEM TO DECIDE. ALL WE HAVE TO DECIDE IS WHAT TO DO WITH THE TIME THAT IS GIVEN US.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Time.

It’s a funny thing.

I love a bit of nostalgia. As I write this, the WhatNow. team are gearing up for M13. I had the privilege of being one of the few females at M12 last year. As cliché as it sounds, I can’t believe that was a year ago. I remember the full sound of people singing and the feeling that came with joining one of my heroes on stage so vividly.

My fiancé and I are in the process of planinng our wedding which is in just under a year. Part of us is glad that we have that amount of time to plan the day; and part of us wishes a sudden gust of wind would blow us forward into Mr and Mrs-dom. It’s funny, a year seems so far away; and yet we are both aware of how the present is shaping who we will be when we say ‘I do’… how this fleeting year is preparation for much more than our wedding day.

As we approach the end of the year, I have been looking back at the year No More Traffik has had. We have seen more victims rescued, an increasingly open and receptive government, strengthened relationships with partners, new and productive community groups, schools and churches mobilised, laws amended.

The chance to look back and relish what has happened spurs us on as we look forward to the next thing, the next step. Looking back and looking forward are good, as long as it doesn’t take away from ‘now’. I struggle most with ‘now’.

Somethimes, I don’t like being in ‘the happening’ of wishing it need not have happened in my time. The times we’re in are tough. The honour of being paid to advocate for those who have no voice is teamed with the awareness of their reality: one that is bleak and one that I wish did not exist in our time. Over 100,000 killed in Syria. Another ‘peace wall’ appears in Belfast. Youth unemployment reaching new heights and delivering new lows.

Things appear bleak. The distraction, numbness, discontentment, uncertainty and discouragement in our times keep us from using our time well.